Dr Amir Khan has suggested on Good Morning Britain that the contraceptive pill could prevent men getting the harsher symptoms of coronavirus.
Dr Amir spoke to Kate Garraway about why men seem to be more likely to catch and fall seriously ill with Covid-19.
Kate revealed that, in her mission to help husband Derek Draper as he fell into a coma because of the virus, that doctors had told her that the contraceptive pill may hold the key.
‘Very early on when Derek first got sick, he was still conscious and wasn’t in the induced coma,’ she explained. ‘I was talking to anyone I could about what could be done to help.
‘This was pre the trials of some of the things we’ve seen used like steroids.
‘After I asked “what would you do right now if you could before the trials”, one doctor said to me at St Thomas’s and one elsewhere, they both said, almost flippantly, they’d put the nation – including men – on the contraceptive pill.’
‘What we’re seeing statistically, is that actually women seem to be less affected,’ she added. ‘They both said there must be some connection between oestrogen that’s good in tackling this virus and testosterone that’s not so good.’
Dr Amir was quick to state that this could definitely need more investigation and testing in order to be proved either way, but there is a chance that female hormone oestrogen could prove to be valuable.
During the episode, he said: ‘Oestrogen – the idea is that this specifically can be protective.
‘What it does is boost your immune system so your immune system reacts quicker to the virus once it takes hold and so you get less of a severe response.
‘So yes theoretically the contraceptive pill, HRT, can be protective in terms of boosting your immunity and protecting you against the serious signs and the serious symptoms of Covid-19.’
However, he added that he didn’t recommend all men going on the pill just yet.
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV.
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